LETTER: Not farming but industrial use

For over 100 years people from the Southwest have coveted water from the Flathead Valley. Now, when glaciers are vanishing from high peaks across the Americas and summers on average are becoming hotter and dryer, a new scheme is being hatched to steal our water — bottle it in 12 oz. bottles and ship it to the Southwest.

Comparing Lew Weaver’s proposal to farming water use is comparing completely unlike situations. Weaver will be using the water all year long. Part of the water will be altered with pollutants and returned to poison the ground or added to our river water. The clean water will be shipped out of the valley in plastic bottles and completely removed from the valley forever.

Farmers only use irrigation water during dry seasons of the summer. The rest of the year smaller amounts of water is used for livestock and home use. The water is returned to the ground, some consumed by crops and the rest seeps back down to the aquifer. The farmer’s crops are used to feed us or livestock, which also will become food for us.

As we know, water flows downhill and will seek to fill a void. When water in large quantities is removed from a specific location, water above that void will seek to fill that space. Many citizens in the Flathead Valley have water wells and water rights. Not only those in the close proximity will be affected by the water draw-down.

What happens to the value of our property when we no longer can live on our home places when our water wells run dry? Will greed win out? Will Flathead Valley no longer be able to support and sustain the quiet peace each of us currently enjoy?

—Ruby and Philip Dynneson, Creston